


Blame It on the Candle

by adorkablephil (kimberly_a)



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Tea
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-25
Updated: 2017-06-25
Packaged: 2018-11-18 18:24:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11296257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kimberly_a/pseuds/adorkablephil
Summary: Candles and tea bring back memories of Japan





	Blame It on the Candle

**Author's Note:**

> For @succ-succ-succ on Tumblr, whose prompt was “its a totally random idea but i was just thinking how much i love feeling cozy and warm after being cold, so maybe something wintery like that? or something about tea... the smell of tea... wafting”—I kind of ran with the tea idea, I guess, though probably not in the way they intended.

It all started with the pretentious candle website.

It was a guilty pleasure, just perusing the descriptions of the various candles, none of which were described in any actually useful way. Dan saw a candle called “Pure Harmony Zen,” and the name caught his eye. He could use a little more zen in his life. The description was, as usual, sphinxlike:

_Zen proverbs tell us, “When you’re eating, eat. When walking, walk.” This is the trick. To train your mind to focus on only one thing at a time creates constant presence in your life, resulting in bliss and inner peace._

That’s all it said. All the catalogue’s descriptions were like that: utterly useless, and yet enticingly evocative. The website didn’t really sell candles—it sold potential imagined life experiences. In this case, bliss and inner peace.

Needless to say, he bought the stupid candle.

It arrived in its usual pretentious packaging, which Dan couldn’t help appreciating. Very aesthetic. He knew he had his pretentious side—was it his right or his left, he mused to himself with amusement—and self-consciousness about it led him to purposely dumb down his speech sometimes, adopt grammatically incorrect phraseology like “Phil and me.”

That is to say, he knew he had his pretentious side, but he didn’t mind it much. He only minded if **other** people minded. He didn’t mind enough to stop buying the freaking candles, or even enough to stop showing them off to his viewers during his live shows.

And his pretentious side—shall we name him “Craig” to go with Derek the Dimple?—loved the fact that the candle website’s packaging perfectly matched the aesthetic-but-useless style of their scent descriptions.

The candle itself was pretty enough, though nothing compared to the oil-themed candle Phil had given him for Christmas. He doubted he’d ever find another as beautiful as that, another that so perfectly represented himself in candle form. But this one was nice enough. Simple and mossy green.

He sniffed it, because that was always the first thing he did with candles, especially ones from this particular website, since their descriptions were so obscure. As a candle connoisseur, he immediately detected various different scents in the mix, but two were especially familiar. Green tea and brown rice. He smiled. It reminded him of a tea they’d had with Duncan and Mimei on their trip to Japan in 2015.

A wave of nostalgia hit him. It had been such a wonderful trip, just exploring Tokyo with another couple who were happy to indulge all their Japan-obsessed wishes and introduce them to the other cultural delights they hadn’t previously known existed. Someday they would go back. Maybe Duncan and Mimei would have kids by then. Another smile curved his lips.

He found himself craving that tea. What had Duncan and Mimei called it? Something in Japanese. Even if he could remember the name, would he even be able to find it in London?

After wracking his brain for about 10 minutes, he just typed “green tea brown rice” into Google and Wikipedia helpfully told him it was called “genmaicha.”

Now came the difficult part, though. Did anyone sell this “genmaicha” in London? This was the fucking land of tea, for fuck’s sake! Tea probably pervaded the very soil! Okay, probably not weird Japanese tea made with rice, but still … surely someone sold it.

He started making phone calls, but most of the tea store proprietors sounded literally offended when they heard what he was looking for. British tea wasn’t good enough for him? He had to look for tea from some country other than the land of Queen and crumpets?

Finally he found that the East India Company shop in Covent Garden sold genmaicha, but that was on the other side of town! Phil was having lunch with PJ this afternoon—would Dan be able to get back before him? For some reason, this all felt like a secret mission, something to surprise Phil with as a _fait accompli_.

He took the Tube and fought his way through the crowds of tourists, bought his weirdly nostalgic Japanese tea, and then found his way back home to find Phil already there, just innocently working on his laptop in the lounge, probably planning his next video. Aware of the secret tea in his backpack, Dan gave Phil a quick kiss hello and then retreated to the kitchen.

“Want a cup of tea?” he called behind him once he knew Phil wouldn’t be able to see what he was doing as he rummaged through his bag.

Phil’s voice sounded puzzled when he replied, probably because he knew that **Dan** knew that he preferred coffee. “Um … sure … I guess. Thanks.”

Dan prepared the tea once the water was boiling, a process he didn’t perform often since they both just tended to spoon instant coffee into mugs straight out of the microwave, but the ritual itself reminded him of his mum and childhood.

This whole experience was awakening so many good memories.

Once he had the tea ready and it had steeped the proper amount of time, he brought two mugs into the lounge and gave the NASA one to Phil before sitting on the sofa beside him. Phil took it, and his face immediately showed his confusion. Dan knew he’d be able to smell the unusual scent right away.

Phil took a cautious sip and frowned, then purposely smelled the steam rising from the cup before taking another sip. He waited a moment, then smiled broadly before turning to look at Dan. “Japan!” he exclaimed. Dan grinned back at him. “Duncan and Mimei!” Phil continued. “This is the tea they gave us at their flat!” Dan nodded. Phil took another sip, his face going dreamy with memories.

Dan took another sip himself before saying, “That was a great trip, wasn’t it?”

Phil smiled at him and nodded. “We need to go back sometime.” He smelled the tea again before drinking again. He asked wonderingly, “Where in the world did you find this? Did we get a package from Duncan and Mimei in the post today?”

Dan laughed a little and said, “Nope. Just a candle.” Phil looked confused, but Dan just smiled at him and tasted another mouthful of memories.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments warm my heart! If you liked this, check out my other phanfics on this site. You can also find me on Tumblr as [@adorkablephil](http://adorkablephil.tumblr.com/) and Twitter as [@stilladorkable](https://twitter.com/stilladorkable?lang=en).


End file.
